RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN READING LEVEL AND READING COMPREHENSION OF THE

GRADE 7 STUDENTS

By: Vanessa A. Yamomo

INTRODUCTION:

Reading Comprehension Skills are specifically important for learners as they

develop in school and the focus becomes no longer on learning to read but

rather reading to learn(Lapp et.al,2008:Ness,2009). The capacity to read with high

comprehension is to support good performance in school or in any field of endeavor.

It is alarming that so many teenage learners have reading difficulties and poor

reading comprehension. More than six (6) million students between the ages of 12

and 18 have reading difficulties (Alliance for Excellent Education 2006). While in

Roberto E. Sato Memorial National High School (RESMNHS), teachers conducted

an interventional reading test among 7th grade students, S.Y. 2022-2023. There

is a comparison of the level before and after the intervention. It has been found

that there were identified struggling students in reading among Grade 8 learners.

Therefore, in this case, researchers conducted this study to determine the level

of the student's reading comprehension. Additionally this study examined

wether there is a relationship between the reading level and the comprehension of

the student.
BODY:

The study is about Reading Comprehension and Reading level of Grade 7

students in Roberto E. Sato Memorial National High School. This study helps the

student to realize the importance of learning to read and to understand what they

read. Aside from that, they will able to know and/or to have an idea about their

levels in reading comprehension. By that, it will help them to improve their abilities

in terms of that. In addition, this study makes the teacher easy in teaching reading

and help the students to develop their comprehension ability. Moreover,

researchers will improve their reading comprehension as well as to enlightened

their mind about the importance of reading. As for the future researchers, this will

help them to add information in their study. Quantitative research method is used to

determine the reading level and comprehension level of the 7th grade students of

Roberto E. Sato Memorial National High School. The researcher used descriptive-

correlation research design in order to know the reading level and comprehension of

the students. The researcher use the questionnaire in which they personally asked

their respondents. The flow of this study includes the collection of data for the

problem. Next, the communication letter to the teacher to ask permission to gather

the data. Also, the data gathered was subjected to statistical treatment, analysis and

interpretation of data. This study was done inside the premises of Roberto E. Sato
Memorial National High school (RESMNHS) located at Calidngan, Carcar City, Cebu.

The research instrument in this study is the Philippine Informal Reading Inventory

(Phil-IRI) summary form. This form contains the summarized information on students

reading comprehension level which can either be one of the following: Independent,

Instructional, and Frustration. The students were classified based on their scores in

Reading Comprehension Pre- Test. First they made use of a demographic profile

which was used to identify the gender and age of the students. The instrument is

comprised of eight (8) items, in which the teacher provides a reading passage,

followed by multiple- choice questions regarding the information provided in the

reading passage. The data was gathered through questionnaire answered by

randomly chosen Grade 7 students. A cover letter was attached to the survey

questionnaire to explain its purpose and relevance and to solicit consent to

participate in this study. For fear that the researcher might disturb the classes, the

questionnaire was carried out at vacant time of the students and the questionnaire

was floated to the students of the respondent school. This will also answer the

statement of the problem. Care was taken to make sure that each students will

answer the questionnaire only once.

CONCLUSION:

Based on the results of the study. It is concluded that all of the Grade 7 students

belonged to the Instructional level in terms of their reading fluency. All Grade 7
students belonged to the Frustration level in terms of their reading comprehension

in a passage. Therefore, there was no clear correlation or relationship found

between reading level and reading comprehension of all the Grade 7 students.